


A Different Path

by JOBrien42



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Episode Related, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23824390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JOBrien42/pseuds/JOBrien42
Summary: In a universe where Matt Santos turns him down, Josh Lyman tries to figure out how to move on in the last year of the Bartlet Administration.A series of short (1000 words of less) episodes marking his journey down the path he didn't take, which hopefully ends up in a similar place.
Relationships: Josh Lyman/Donna Moss
Comments: 60
Kudos: 68





	1. Faith Based Initiative

There was a knock, causing Josh to look up from the report he was marking up. “Yeah?”

The door swung open, revealing Matt Santos. “Josh? I hope this is okay. I didn’t see your assistant out there.”

“Donna’s gone,” Josh said, his tone flat. “My new assistant actually believes in taking her lunch hour. How can I help you, Congressman?”

“I just wanted to stop by in person,” the Congressman began. “I know it wasn’t easy to fly down before Christmas with your nine point plan and ask me to run. I’m flattered, really, that you thought I was ready. But I’m not. I am sick to death of the machine right now, how it chews up good intentions and mixes it with the worst sort of rhetoric and spews out things like this marriage ban. I just want to go home to Houston and make a difference and do some good.”

Josh stared at him, his face an implacable mask.

“Anyway, I do thank you for your offer, but I really have to decline. I can’t spend six weeks running around Iowa and New Hampshire only to end up with a mountain of debt. I won’t do that to my family.”

Josh nodded once. “Thanks for letting me know, Congressman. Good luck with your clinics.”

“I’ll, uh, I’ll show myself out,” Santos said, leaving quickly.

The door closed with a click. 

Inside the office, Josh fought down a jumble of emotions. He was disappointed, sure, but he knew Santos had been a long shot. He was angry at himself; it was his fault, all his fault. Donna was gone. He was frustrated and powerless, as now the Democratic party had to choose between a stuffed shirt and a pair of dropped trousers and either way they were going to lose the White House. 

Well, if that was the case, it was time he got to work ensuring the Republicans didn’t have a pliant Congress to undo the last eight years of their lives as easily as Donna had erased everything they had shared over that span.

He made a note to ask the new assistant - Marla, that was her name - to set up a meeting with CJ to talk about the Congressional races. It was time to get to work.


	2. 365 Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo returns to the White House after his heart attack with an inspiring message for most of the staff.

Josh watched as his co-workers, energized by Leo’s speech about the good they could yet do in this last year of Bartlet’s presidency, brainstormed an impressive agenda to pursue. 

It had been a hard day. They were all hard days lately, but this one had started with so much promise. There had been the high after last night’s well regarded State of the Union. There’d been a buzz of excitement over Leo’s return to the West Wing. 

But the day had gotten away from them. Contractors captured in Bolivia. Trouble in the DMZ in Korea. Natural disasters. A bad jobs report. And feckless Democrats not wanting to push for the President’s agenda - including that joke of a Vice President that Haffley had foisted off on them. The man, he reminded himself, that Donna was now trying to get elected President. So their meeting with Leo had been forgotten.

They’d been summoned back to the White House at 10 that night so Leo could impart his wisdom, and that of Thomas Paine. More accurately, the others had been brought back, while Josh had instead gotten the page while sitting in his office, working on a strategy to keep the Indiana 3rd in the Democratic column. So he found himself observing as his fellow staff threw off the disappointment of the day and bounced ideas back and forth.

Eventually the meeting adjourned, as one by one the participants left, until it was just Leo, Josh and Toby.

“You were awfully quiet,” Leo said to him. “No grand plans of your own to pursue?”

“You’ve given up on the Presidency,” Josh said, matter-of-factly. “That’s what this was really about, trying to preserve our legacy.”

Leo stared at him, his face stony. After a moment, he nodded. “It’s not looking great. Will was in earlier, telling me he was still looking for what he assumes we saw in Bob Russell when the President picked him. I didn't have the heart to remind him it was a bad call in a moment of weakness. And Hoynes’ indiscretions have fatally wounded his prospects; he just won’t admit it to himself. The rest? No one’s polling above the margin of error. I had more confidence the years we were getting our asses handed to us by Lassiter.”

“Yeah,” Josh agreed. He looked at his mentor, at his earnestness and the exhaustion beneath that. “C’mon, it’s been way too long for your first day back. We’ll walk you out.”

Josh grabbed his coat and he and Toby escorted Leo outside to the waiting town car. 

After he left, Toby turned to Josh. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

“What?”

“It doesn’t have to end like this.”

“I’m not going to go help Russell,” Josh insisted. 

“Not Russell. Not Hoynes,” Toby said. “You and me, working together. Do you know how powerful a force we can be?”

Josh looked at him. “What are you saying?”

Toby shuffled a bit in the February cold. “What do you know about Senator Rafferty?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's tricky imagining how things would've played out if Josh stayed at the White House. I really like tying in Toby's complaint about how Josh hadn't come to him and the Ricky Rafferty storyline.


	3. Drought Conditions

“And I’m telling you that Andersen can win the 1st back for us, we just gotta get her past Ryerson in the primary,” Josh explained with as much patience as he could muster. He didn’t want to be at the DNC Gala, but there was networking to do, and he needed allies to get the right candidates in the right races.

He had seen flashes of blond hair through the crowd a couple times, and each time he had moved in the opposite direction. She’d apparently stopped by his office earlier, but for once Marla’s rules helped. She didn’t have an appointment and his schedule was full with a futile attempt to get that damn water bill passed.

There were a couple more movers and shakers he needed to track down, and then he could get the hell out of there.

“No,” he continued into his phone, “Ryerson doesn’t have a chance. Have you seen his unfavorables with women and unions?”

“Hang up now.” came a painfully familiar voice he hadn’t heard since December.

He felt a hand - her hand - on his elbow, pulling him. He managed to end his call even as he felt the adrenaline surging through his blood. Fight or flight.

She pulled him down the hall and into a maintenance closet, shutting the door behind them.

“Is our relationship about to change?”

It was stupid. The first words he spoke to her since she’d quit were pathetic innuendo.

Donna flicked on the light and shoved a handful of pages in his chest. “‘Obliterate the money-laundering middleman between you and your doctor’.” she quoted. “Annabeth had the copy of the full text of Rafferty’s health plan. It’s vintage Jed Bartlet, and that means it came from someone who worked that first health initiative - Sam, Toby, Melanie, Ken… or you.”

“Or the President,” Josh pointed out.

“It wasn’t him,” she concluded. “And Rafferty’s foreign policy interview on Dateline, where she quoted FDR about not haggling over the price of the garden hose? That was you, wasn’t it?”

Josh looked away.

“Will’s ready to recommend that the Office of the Special Counsel bring you up on Hatch Act violations.”

“And Will should know that doesn’t apply to special advisers to the President so long as any money spent doesn’t come out of the U.S. Treasury,”

“So you push us left?” Donna asked incredulously. “Make us - and Hoynes - release our Healthcare plans early. Make it harder to pivot back to the center in the general?”

“Like Bingo Bob’s going to move an inch off the middle of the road,” Josh snapped. “He claims to be a Democrat, let him act like one.”

“By pushing Single Payer? The Republicans will have a field day!” she countered. “That’s what you told the President back in our first year!”

Josh didn’t respond.

“It’s not you,” she decided, and she turned to go. “Not the healthcare plan, anyway. This is all Toby.”

He moved, seemingly unconsciously, blocking her exit. “Toby just lost his brother. If you or anyone else from the Benedict Arnold campaign goes after him, I will personally see that person never works in Democratic politics again.”

With that, he pulled open the door and walked out, not looking back at the shocked expression on Donna’s face.

He made his way to the bathroom, his legs shaking from the adrenaline still flowing through his veins. He looked at the figure in the mirror, scarcely recognizing the dark circles under the eyes and hollow cheekbones, and fought the urge to punch the glass, punch himself. He had just threatened _Donna_. He held tight to the sink and got his emotions under control. She should be happy, he supposed. She’d made the big time now; she’d gotten on Josh Lyman’s hit list.

He hoped she was happy. One of them should be.

He ran his hands through his hair roughly, pulling himself back to his senses. He washed his hands and dried them, before pulling out his phone and dialing. “Yeah, Steve. I wanted to take your temperature about Wilkins for the Iowa 4th.”


	4. A Good Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a little more hopeful, as everyone gets together to confound Speaker Haffley.

Josh didn’t like Cliff Calley. He liked him even less when the man talked about catching up with Donna and how good she looked. But when the Republican lawyer had come to him with Congressman Santos and a hare-brained scheme to pass the Stem Cell bill, he’d seen immediately that the idea had merit. Haffley may have killed the vote when he saw he would lose, but he was easily goaded, and Cliff had an in with a standing squash game. 

Josh had suggested they work with Arkansas Congressman Brooks, who he knew to be sleeping in his office in the Capitol. Brooks was pretty conservative, but he was a Democrat, and in the talks Josh had had with him about his reelection, he’d come across as a good guy.

He was returning from Congressman Brooks’s office when he ran into the smug face of the Speaker, who was returning from where he knew Santos’s office to be.

“Still on your one man crusade to try to get a Democratic takeover of the House?” 

“Count on it, Mr. Speaker,” Josh replied. “I’m coming from your job. Both of them, actually.”

“Keep on tilting at those windmills, Ivanhoe” Haffley answered. “If you think you’ve got any chance of turning out the base with Bob Russell or John Hoynes on the ticket, I’ve got another International trade deal for you to negotiate.”

Josh felt his eye twitch as the Congressman baited him with the memory of the Brussels trade agreement. “Yeah, don’t hold your breath. I’ve got a whole ad campaign ready to roll, about what a crappy deal maker you are. Like this stem cell vote …” He looked to see the reaction, just the little turn of the head that showed Haffley was paying attention. “Any half decent negotiator would’ve been able to seal the deal, but you had to pull the vote like a coward. How’s that gonna play with the base in Spokane, Jeff?”

“It’ll play just fine,” Haffley said smoothly. “We’ll just use it to target vulnerable Democrats.”

“Yeah, good luck with that, It was Don Quixote, by the way.”

“What?”

“It was Don Quixote that tilted at windmills. Hence the word ‘quixotic.’” Josh said as he hoisted his backpack and walked away, leaving the Speaker behind. He made his way to a stairwell and pulled out his phone. “Pretty sure he took the bait. Calley should be able to seal the deal tomorrow.”

“We’re hearing that Haffley has left for the night,” Matt Santos said on the other end of the line. “Why don’t you come up to the Vice President’s office, we’re getting a bit of a party going here.”

Josh was torn. This whole ploy reinforced his idea that Santos would’ve made a better candidate than any of their current options, especially when Rafferty dropped out before South Carolina. But having a captive audience of dozens of Democratic lawmakers was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. “I’ll be there. Did you need anything?”

“We have coffee and popcorn, what more could we ask for?”

“More than one bathroom,” Josh quipped, closing his phone and making his way up towards Russell’s office.

He checked around for anyone watching, then rapped lightly on the door. 

“You’re back quick,” came Donna’s voice as she opened the door.

Josh froze. She worked for the Vice-President. Calley had mentioned running into her, maybe she’d even suggested using Russell’s office. “Er, Congressman Santos,” he managed to get out, “he asked me to stop by.”

“Oh,” she responded. “Come in, before someone sees you.”

And that was it. He moved inside with a mumbled thanks, and she closed the door behind him, waiting for the next House member to arrive.

Josh spent a couple hours working the room, laying out strategies and arranging for endorsements and shared appearances. One by one, the politicians broke off, trying to get comfortable on couches, chairs and the odd spot of open floor. 

He found himself watching as Santos ended up talking to Congressman Brooks about the merits of the stem cell bill, patiently listening to the man’s concerns and eloquently explaining his own position.

“He’s good,” Donna whispered. “It’s too bad he’s retiring. The party could use someone like him.”

“I tried,” Josh admitted. “I did more than that. I asked him to run for President.”

“You didn’t!” she said, a hushed surprise in her voice.

“I did. Flew to Houston on Christmas Eve. Had a nine point plan and everything.”

“What happened?”

“He said no.” Josh shrugged. They sat in awkward silence for a moment, watching Santos. “I gotta go.”

“Josh?” Donna said. “I just wanted... “

“It doesn’t matter now,” he said, rising to his feet. He started to walk away, but stopped, not wanting to leave on such a dismissive note. He turned his head back to her. “I’ve heard… you’re really doing great, Donna. Will was smart to hire you. He’d be even smarter if he put you on policy instead of collecting checks.”


	5. 2162 Votes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robert Russell is the 2006 Democratic nominee for President. Josh has other things on his mind.

Tonight the Democratic Party was anointing Robert Russell as its standard bearer, and the atmosphere was muted. Leo was trying to put on a good show, but the networks had taken one look at the low turnout in the primaries and insisted on a limited broadcast schedule.

“Bingo Bob” had become the presumptive nominee with a clean sweep of Super Tuesday, after the revelation about another scandal concerning John Hoynes. There had been a muttering of “anyone but Russell”, but it hadn’t amounted to anything, and so this day had come.

To say that the members working for the Bartlet Administration were less than enthused would be unfair. Most of them acquitted themselves well in public, praising the candidate with words carefully chosen and often vetted by Will Bailey’s team.

Governor Baker of Pennsylvania had spoken the previous night, accepting the Vice Presidential nomination and laying out a sober, dependable agenda and emphasizing his record of job creation and lower taxes in his state. Josh had stood there dumbfounded as it seemed like Will was trying to flank Vinick from the right.

“It’s like he’s taking strategy advice from Al Keefer,” he said to Toby.

“Well, maybe if you weren’t monopolizing Joey Lucas’s time running Congressional race polling, we’d have more options.” Donna’s voice from the doorway made him jump.

Without a word, Toby got up from the loveseat where he’d been sitting with a legal pad and an open bottle of scotch, and left the room. He returned a moment later to retrieve the bottle.

“Traitor,” Josh called after him.

“It’s time to stop playing, Josh,” Donna began. “It’s time to stop your sulking and come help elect Bob Russell.”

He looked at her. “Will sent you?”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “With the Vice President’s blessing. You weren’t too proud to help him last year, and we need you so we have our best shot at beating Vinick. Just look at what you’ve done with Congressional recruitment - you’ve got eight normally dependable Republican seats polling within the margin of error!”

“Nine, actually,” he said. “Which is the point. Someone’s gotta focus on this, to keep an eye on the big picture, so-”

“So, what?” There was an edge to her words.

“Donna…”

“So you can be the savior of the Democratic Party when Bob Russell loses in November,” she said. “That’s what you were going to say, wasn’t it?”

“No,” he answered. “I wasn’t going to say that.”

“But you were thinking it!” she accused. “Because Josh Lyman and his ego are too good for Bob Russell!”

“I don’t think - okay, maybe I do think that,” Josh admitted. “But I also think you’re too good for Bingo Bob, too. Know it, in fact.”

Donna looked at him through narrowed eyes. “So the Vice President is just another ‘gomer’? Another man I’ve wasted my time on?”

“Yes!”

“And what does it say about the eight years I wasted working for you!”

Josh felt like he’d been slapped. He’d worried she felt like that, but it was another thing to hear it out loud. He lowered his head in defeat.

He expected her to storm out, so he was surprised when he heard her flop down in the chair Toby had vacated.

“What are we doing, Josh? What happened to us?” Her anger was gone, replaced with a sadness that pierced his heart.

“You left,” he wanted to say. “You walked out on me.” But that was unfair. She’d told him she wanted to do more, and there’d been nothing more he could offer. He collapsed into a chair about four feet from hers.

“‘People move on,’” he finally said. “That’s what Leo told me, when I told him you’d quit. You went and got a better job for yourself.”

“I don’t want to believe I moved on from you, Josh,” she said. “Not from our friendship.”

“Yeah?” He looked over at her.

“Yes.” She held his gaze, her expression challenging him.

“Me either,” he admitted.

“So what do we do?”

“Our jobs,” he said. “And in November after Election Day, whatever happens, maybe we can get dinner or something. I can buy you that salad. If you, y’know, still want.”

“November’s a long way away,” she pointed out.

“You still work for the Vice President,” Josh pointed out, “and he still has an office in the White House. I don’t think we’ll be complete strangers.”

“Does that mean you’re going to stop hiding from me?” She gave a hint of a smile.

“I dunno,” he said with an ironic shrug. “You still gonna yell at me?”

“Only when you deserve it,” she said. “Like now. When’s the last time you slept in your bed? Or had a real meal? You’d better not be waiting for November for that.”

“Um,” came his weak reply.

Donna’s phone went off. She glanced at it. “I gotta…”

“Yeah…”

She hit the button. “Hey Will. No. I told you he wouldn’t… I gave it my best shot…” She rolled her eyes for Josh’s benefit. “Look, he keeps doing his thing and we do ours, and we may actually have a friendly Congress for a change…”

She covered the mouthpiece of her phone with her opposite hand and turned to Josh. “The day after, whatever happens. It’s a date.”

And she left the room, leaving him staring after her.


	6. The Day After Election Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A promise kept.

He saw her, skulking around some of the floral arrangements near the front of the restaurant. He’d arrived early at Filomena’s, a moderately priced Italian place in Georgetown he remembered Donna raving about, wearing one of his nicer suits. It felt after the previous night’s election results that she might want comfort food.

He’d been fidgeting with his Blackberry, reading emails and checking news sites, all the while expecting a call - or more likely a text - cancelling their dinner when he finally spotted her.

It had been fifteen weeks since that night at the Convention. Fifteen weeks since he told her they should have dinner, and she’d replied, “it’s a date.” 

For fifteen weeks he’d wondered about that, about her choice of words, trying to convince himself that it didn’t mean anything, that even though she was the spokesperson for a national campaign she may still have chosen the word flippantly. He wasn’t entirely stupid; he knew there’d been a tension between them. They’d flirted shamelessly for years. And when she’d nearly died in Gaza, when he saw her in that hospital in Germany, he’d nearly confessed to feelings stronger than he dared to admit to himself.

Not that she felt the same. Not when she’d been able to leave him so easily.

Now, seeing her scanning the restaurant’s occupants nervously, he shoved those thoughts away and approached.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi.”

He looked at her more closely, at the way her eyes kept darting around the room. “Donna, is something wrong?”

“You’re not afraid to be seen with the face of the losing campaign?” she asked quietly.

“I’d never be afraid to be seen with a friend,” he said. “And you have nothing to be ashamed of.”

“We lost by almost two hundred electoral votes, Josh. It’s embarrassing.”

“Yeah, you lost. And it sucks. It always sucks,” he told her. “But you and Will have nothing to be embarrassed about. You ran the best campaign possible with what you had against an extraordinary opponent with Bruno Gianelli running his campaign.”

“Says the guy that almost single-handedly flipped the House, and nearly the Senate too.”

“There was nothing single-handed about it,” Josh said. “I got lucky with a crop of good candidates this year. Now, please, if you’re up to it, I’d love to have dinner with you.”

He hesitantly offered his arm, and managed a facsimile of his old smile for her. There was a second where it seemed she’d decline, but she put her arm in his, and allowed him to escort her to the table. He slid her chair out for her, earning a somewhat look of surprise, and the two spent a few minutes perusing the menu.

“When did you get back from Grand Junction?” he asked.

“This morning,” she answered. “I nearly took a redeye last night, but I had a few statements they wanted me to make.”

He nodded. The waiter came, taking their orders, Tortelloni di Michele for him, Linguini Cardinale for her, and a bottle of a fairly expensive Chardonnay. 

Their meals arrived, and they ate hungrily, both of them relieved to have something other than room service, takeout or whatever junk food they’d been able to scrounge at an off hour. Donna ordered the Choco Caramel Cheesecake and insisted that they share, scooting her chair next to Josh.

They made mostly small talk, sharing a laugh at how an Army colonel who’s promotion had once been held up by Chris Carrick had just taken his Senate seat from him, and how Jeff Haffley would be similarly unemployed in January. 

When the check came, Josh insisted, placing several bills into the check presenter. “Tonight’s meal is on me, and by that, I mean it’s courtesy of Amy Gardner.”

Donna narrowed her eyes. “How so?”

“I won quite a bit off her last night. She didn’t think Russell would break a hundred electoral votes,” Josh said. 

“You had that much faith in ‘Bingo Bob’?” she asked, uncharacteristically using the derogatory nickname.

“No. I had that much faith in you,” he said, his face serious. “I know it’s too early to hear this, but you really did a remarkable job. There’s no way you should have done that well in the Upper Midwest. And we were able to leverage your plans for Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan to pick up a couple more seats.”

“That was Will…”

“That was you, Donna. Charlie kept me apprised of what he learned while liaising with the campaign. You’re really good at this.”

She stared at him, speechless.

“I’m not kidding,” Josh insisted. “I know losing still sucks, and you’re probably doubting yourself, but you gotta get off the mat and decide what’s next for Donnatella Moss.”

“I already know what’s next,” she said.

“Oh?”

“Yes,” she smiled. “I’m going to thank you for a lovely dinner and see if you might like to take a walk with me.”

Josh nodded, and flashed his dimples . “I think I’d like that.”

“Thank you.” Donna leaned over and kissed him lightly on the lips. “I think we have a lot to talk about.”

“I think we’ve needed to for a long time.”

“Yes,” she said, with a shy smile, “we have.”

And, arm in arm, the two left the restaurant into the brisk evening air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a much longer fic here, but I wasn't in the right mindset to write it. Even so, this feels a bit of a cop-out - I think they get together, but the conversation is the most important thing. Josh and Donna spend nearly the entirety of the post-Sorkin years one good talk from figuring it out.
> 
> based on kcat1971's suggestion, I'm toying with a supplemental chapter, and maybe one for "Tomorrow", but as for now, consider this finished.

**Author's Note:**

> These are a bit bleak, but I think I can get to a happier place at the end.


End file.
